1st week
DAY 1
Arrived about 6pm after going round most of the countryside in the dark and passing the cottage at least once. It doesn’t take long to unpack all the gear and turn the living room into a makeshift studio. The computer is on a coffee table, and I have to sit on an armchair in front of it. But hey - this is rock n’ roll, right?
Bacon and eggs for tea, and then spend the rest of the night trying to finish off the (day job) work I brought away with me.
Finally stopped at about 5am, and shut the dogs out of the living room - only to discover that I couldn’t open the door again! The next fortnight sealed up on the other side of a door!
Being vvewy vvewy dwunk on the whisky a client gave me, I stumbled off to bed on the simple premise that the door wasn’t going to go anywhere.
DAY 2
Wake up at 2.00pm - bloody marvelous!
Cup of tea, bacon and eggs and that door.
It turns out that the handle is slipping on the spindle so the spindle doesn’t turn. It also turns out that the only thing not in the living room is my tub of tools and bits for building the fuzz box. So with the use of pliers I can turn the spindle and open the door, and then use an allen key to tighten up the knobs’ grub screws (I know - it would have been so much more entertaining to say ‘tighten up the knob’. But remember, I’m perched on the edge of an armchair in front of a coffee table: there’s no laughs round here).
So yippee, the fortnight is on again!
Into the neighbouring town for a supermarket shop and a chinese takeaway and then back to (day job) work. To celebrate finishing at 1am, I jack Fergus into the Marshall and turn all the knobs up to eleven. This is what the whole project is about. It’s so f—ing loud!
These first few days are mostly going to be spent adjusting to being free to MAKE A NOISE! I play around with the wah wah pedal and then try out my old Electro Harmonix Soul Preacher (It’s a compressor - well it is when you change the battery). Terrrifying! IT’S EVEN LOUDER!
I stop playing for a moment… voices! I can hear voices! Oh Shite-orama - it’s the middle of the night and someone has come over to complain…
No. It’s the Electro Harmonix Soul Preacher attempting to broadcast a gratuitous love scene from the radio. It’s back into the gig bag for you mate.
Bed at 4am.
DAY 3
Up at 11.00am. I’ve got to post the (day job) work before I can really relax and get into the project. So bacon, eggs, tea and then off in the car to the other neighbouring town.
I spend the rest of the day playing the different instruments and starting to try and discover my voice.
This first week is planned to be the acoustic guitar and voice only week for writing songs, but it’s also preparation for ‘going into the studio’ next week. That mostly means building up both strength and calluses on both hands. And my bowing arm for playing the fiddle - sheesh! If I can’t get that strengthened pronto I’ll have to retire the fiddle.
But the real challenge is trying to discover James Bisset - songwriter. It’s so long since I’ve done anything like this that I don’t quite know where to start. I’ve been toying with a couple of guitar lines that have been loitering at the back like malcontents for months now, but they sound almost comically folky to me. Is this where the quest for the real James Bisset starts?
Mostly, I just strum and howl and think, yeah, country - so what… yeah, rock - so what…?
I try playing some of my earlier stuff from Bernie Hot Hot and Caedmon too, but that’s no good. I can’t begin to work out what the chords are.
Oh - and one more thing… I think my voice has finally broken. There’s no way I can reach those notes now.
Finish off the night reading software manuals for Logic and off to bed at 2am.
DAY 4
Up at 11.00am.
I thought this cottage was supposed to be remote! Yesterday the house was surrounded by shooters out bagging pheasant in the woods below. Last night, the caretaker popped over to make sure there was someone here, after finding a bunch of messages on her answer machine from me and my wife, recorded while I was driving around in the dark last saturday trying to find the place. And then this morning the electricity meter man turned up to read the meter. Had a nice chat - well I think it was a nice chat, I didn’t understand very much of what he said. I think I’ve been in England too long.
After breakfast, the usual routine of 15 minutes to half an hour on each instrument. The dogs always leave the room when I play the fiddle. Right hand fingertips are almost too tender to type (bass-playing). I had to stop singing too for a while - I thought I sounded like Simon le Bon.
Spent a pleasant couple of hours wiring up the fuzz box at the kitchen table, and then had to stop because the holes in the box need reaming out and I ain’t got a reamer.
Another bout of finger hurting and then a quick reprise of Duran Duran hits. There’s a sense now that there are songs out there in the ether just waiting to be discovered. Now it’s a matter of dogged determination, and wrestling with snippets of ideas that might be something more.
Watch ‘The Last Waltz’ on DVD and then off to bed at 4am.
DAY 5
Up at 12 and off to town to get the reamer. A bit of a browse round the town and then back to finish the fuzz box. Finish all the soldering and then discover that I can’t find the final crucial component. Somehow, between last night and this afternoon, I’ve managed to lose the Germanium transistor which actually makes the fuzz!
Back to the guitar, the fiddle and the bass then. Nothing special forthcoming, although I’m beginning to feel more comfortable with the instruments, and the calluses are developing nicely. Slouch beside the fire with a cup of tea and then notice, out of the corner of my eye, something on the tiles in front of the fire.
Yes! It’s an AC128 Germanium transistor! I must have swept it up when I took the newspaper I was using to protect the kitchen table from hot solder through to the fireplace to build a fire.
So - fuzz box finished and working. Nasty!
Now back to those pesky songs…
DAY 6
Chop wood, build fire, cook and eat breakfast, walk dogs, shop for provisions and then back to work.
Brief hiatus when I discover a phone socket I hadn’t noticed before. Hey - internet access! Fortunately, there’s no dial tone, otherwise I’d probably get no work done at all.
I’ve got the loose shapings of about 4 songs so far, and now I have to force myself to adhere to the KISS principle. I find it very hard to resist turning every song into a five minute opus, with instrumental breaks and the rest. In fact, a song is a verse and chorus repeated with maybe a bridge to add contrast and dynamism. That’s it.
So - Keep It Simple Stupid. Otherwise nothing will get finished.
Spend some time working on a witty little idea I’ve had for an intro to the album, then work for a while on ‘keep on’ (working title) - it’s really two ideas put together and I need to make sure that the join is invisible.
Then watch a Danny Kaye movie - makes you think ‘what’s the point - that guy’s already done it so much better’ and off to bed.
DAY 7
Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic.
Ruth and the kids are coming up to visit, so it’s time for scrub up.